Plymouth Citybus has explained why buses have had to skip past stops after numerous passengers complained they had been left behind.

Southway resident Kala Whyte is one of a number of people frustrated with the firm, saying she has been refused entry on-board a service and experienced lengthy delays.

Kala regularly catches the number 40 service and took to Facebook to share her frustrations.

She received over 25 messages from other bus users who had experienced similar problems.

Kala posted: “Something has got to be done about these buses. Everyday, I wait over half an hour in the freezing cold for at least two buses not to show up. Everyday I’m late and cold. Not happy at all.

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Kala Whyte has experienced problems with the number 40 Citybus service

“I’ve had a bus driver who was 11 minutes late say I couldn’t get on because he was late and I’d have to wait for another one.”

She told The Herald: “Last week I was at the bus stop on Thursday from 6pm until 6.55pm and gave up, I was so cold. It has been an absolute nightmare recently.

“I’m not the only one it’s happening to. Everyone is complaining that they’re waiting up to an hour for buses and that’s from town as well.”

Richard Stevens, Citybus managing director, said that there are various reasons that a bus may not stop - with heavy traffic being one of them.

Mr Stevens said: “A bus may not stop for waiting passengers at a stop on its route if it is full to capacity or if the service is displaying a ‘Not in Service’ message.

“Buses display 'Not in Service' if they are making their way to the start point of their next service route, such as from the Milehouse bus depot to Royal Parade for services due to begin their route from Royal Parade.

“They may also display this message if they have been withdrawn from service due to circumstances beyond our control like being caught up in traffic due to roadworks or a road traffic accident.”

Richard Stevens, Citybus Managing Director pictured in 2014

Each service is monitored in real time by a control centre team who work with the drivers to make sure the services run on time.

Mr Stevens said that buses that are running late “occasionally need to be withdrawn” to ensure services can “recover and go to a point on its route to ensure the next service is on time”.

He added: “This can happen when the next service on the route is catching up with it or if the driver needs to come off the road to take his break to ensure he does not go above his legal driving hours.

"Sometimes it might appear that a service is not stopping when it is full to capacity.

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"In this instance, the bus would not be out of service as it would still be dropping passengers off at stops along its route thereby freeing up space for additional passengers to board.”

Mr Stevens said that there are “occasions where we might be unable to run to schedule due to factors outside our control” and that delays are reported to the public.

He said: “Sometimes it is necessary to withdraw a service due to late running. The decision to withdraw a service due to late running is never taken lightly and we endeavour to do everything we can to provide a punctual service for all passengers.

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“Due to circumstances beyond our control we do find that busy arterial routes in the city can become severely congested, particularly at this time of year, which has a knock-on effect to our services.”